Golf ball retriever or picker



GOLF BALL RETRIEVER OR PICKER Filed Feb. 7, 1966 m 1: In H HI ,3}

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/N l/N7'0l James C. Shoemaker ATT'V United States Patent f 3,362,551 GQLF BALL RETRIEVER 0R PICKER James C. hoemaker, 4301 Tullocks Wood Trail,

- Rockford, Ill. 61103 Filed Feb. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 525,533 18 Claims. (Cl. 214-456) This invention relates to a golf ball retriever or picker of the kind adapted to be pulled behind a golf cart or tractor to pick up balls on a driving range or in front of a practice tee.

I am aware that other devices have been designed to perform this operation and have been fairly successful, but most of these prior devices have been rather large and cumbersome and quite expensive, and were, moreover, not capable of conforming the pick-up means to the contour of the ground, and, consequently, were incapable of reaching, let alone picking up, balls that happened to lie in the low spots, except perhaps if the pick-up means happened to hit a low spot at the most favorable angle. It is, therefore, the principal object of my invention to provide a simpler and more economical device of the character described and one having spring actuated pickup fingers disposed in laterally spaced relation with forwardly tapered portions terminating in upwardly curved ends which, besides riding over the ground like sled runners, instead of gouging into the ground, are slotted to receive the ends of wire spring arms or fingers that project rearwardly from a cross-bar on the frame and help to keep the ends of the pick-up fingers pressed into contact with the ground, while at the same time, kicking balls to the right or left to positions between the pick-up fingers for eflicient pick-up action, a substantially horizontal rotary brush disposed over the fingers acting to sweep the balls upwardly over an inclined ramp and into baskets disposed behind the ramp in the rear portion of the frame, and balls that are kicked up with too much force by the brush to roll into the basket being deflected into the baskets off a canvas baffle that extends forwardly from behind the baskets with suitable upward inclination to a point far enough forwardly of the baskets to eliminate any likelihood of any balls not striking it and being deflected thereby into the baskets.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the golf ball retriever or picker of my invention indicating a hitch extending forwardly from the front end of the frame for connection with a golf cart or tractor;

FIG. 2 is a side view;

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view showing a front corner portion of the frame with the rotary brush operating over the pick-up spring actuated fingers the front ends of which are held down in good contact with the ground by wire spring fingers;

FIG. 4 is a detail on the line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 4a is a section through the joint seen in FIG. 4; and

FIG. 5 is a view on the line 55 of FIG. 3 illustrating how the pick-up fingers riding on the ground in laterally spaced relationship to one another are adapted to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls regardless of where they happen to lie in relation to the elevation of the generally horizontal frame.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts throughout these views.

Referring to the drawing, the reference numeral 6 designates my improved golf ball retriever or picker generally, which comprises a substantially horizontal rectangular frame '7 suitably supported for forward travel at opposite ends on a pair of rear wheels 8, and supported across the front by a series of downwardly projecting,

3,362,551 Patented Jan. 9, 1968 laterally spaced, spring actuated pick-up fingers 9 that rest on the ground 10 as a group, although each is adapted to shift individually upwardly or downwardly relative to the rest and relative to a transverse ramp 11 that extends on an incline upwardly and rearwardly from the rear portions of the spring actuated fingers 9 the full width of the frame, as seen in FIG. 1, and serves to direct golf balls 12 into baskets 13 that are suitably supported removably in an auxiliary frame 14 carried on the rear portion of the frame '7 on upright supports 15. A substantially horizontal rotary brush 16 mounted in the frame 7 by means of an axle 17 in brackets 18 carried on opposite ends of the frame extends crosswise of the front portion of the frame over the series of spring actuated pick-up fingers 9 and is suitably driven in the same direction as the wheels 8 turn by means of a belt 19 from a large pulley 20 provided on and turning with one of the rear wheels 8, the belt 19 driving the smaller driven pulley 21 fixed on one end of the axle 17 at an increased speed to insure adequate propulsion of the balls 12 even at fairly low speeds of forward travel of the machine, the balls 12 being in fact struck with sufficient force in many instances as to require a deadening and deflecting shield or baffle 22 of canvas extending the full width of the machine and suitably secured across the rear of the frame 14, as indicated at 23, and stretched across the front between the two posts 24 provided on opposite sides of the frame 7 in front of the ramp 11, the shield or baflle 22 serving both to slow down balls in flight on the line 25 from brush 16 and deflect the same downwardly into the baskets 13, as indicated at 26, after they strike at 27.

The pick-up fingers 9, as clearly appears in FIG. 3, are made of flat spring steel stock and have converging lateral edges 28, and these fingers are so spaced in relation to the diameter of golf balls 12, that, whereas a ball 12 is adapted to enter easily between the upwardly bent front ends 29, which ride over the ground like sled runners, they cannot drop through the spaces defined between the parallel edges 31 of the upwardly inclined rear portions 32 of the fingers 9 which are suitably guided for endwise movement relative to the underside of the ramp 11 as indicated at 33. To insure the pick-up fingers 9 following the contour of the ground 10 there are wire spring hold-down arms or fingers 34 carried by means of coiled front end portions 35 on a crossabar 36 on the front end portion of the frame 7, as indicated at 37, these fingers 34 having end portions 38 extending under the frame 7 for support against upward deflection, so that the rear ends of springs fingers 34 exert a predetermined downward pressure on the front ends of the pick-up fingers 9. The spring fingers 34 have hooked rear ends 39 working freely in vertical slots 40 in the upwardly curved front end portions 29 of the fingers 9 to apply enough spring pressure downwardly on the front end of each of the pick-up fingers 9 to be certain that they remain always in good contact with the ground so as to ride under any balls that may be encountered, the downwardly inclined rear end portions 41 of the wire spring fingers 34 coming into contact with balls'serving to deflect the same to the right or left into the proper position for entry between the spring actuated pick-up fingers 9.

In operation, a suitable hitch 42 attached at 43 to the front end of the frame 7 enables pulling the machine 6 behind a 'golf cart or small tractor, and, as the machine moves forward, the brush 16, turning at a higher speed in relation to the speed of rotation of the supporting wheels 8, brushes the balls 12 off the fingers 9 up the ramp 11 and into the baskets 13. The rearwardly converging lateral edges 28 of neighboring fingers 9 coming under a ball 12 cause it to run onto the tops of these fingers and into the path of the rotary brush 16. The unique coaction of spring actuated pick-up fingers 9 and springhold-down arms or fingers 34 involving endwise and oscillatory movement of fingers 9 combined with deflection of the springs 34 accounts for the efficient picking up of balls no matter at what elevation they happen to lie in relation to the frame 7. Any balls propelled by brush 16 'with sufiicient force to strike canvas bafiie 22 will be deflected and cushioned and drop with greatly diminished force into the baskets 13. These baskets are of wire construction and have supporting handle projections 41 on the front and rear ends and are adapted to be removed when filled, to be dumped. The baskets being of open wire construction, with their bottoms left uncovered, any dirt or trash swept up by brush 16 into the baskets with the balls will be sifted out as the machine operates.

While the pick-up fingers 9 could, of course, slide in direct contact with the ground 10, I found it desirable, to cut down maintenance expense, to provide removable and replaceable shoes 44 of the same spring steel stock as the fingers 9, disposed under the fingers so as to take all of the wear, and curved upwardly and interlocked at 45 with the curved front ends of the fingers 9. Thus, whenever the operator notices after some length of rough service that the shoes 44 have worn thin, he can easily replace them with new ones in a small fraction of the time and at a small fraction of what it would cost to replace the fingers 9 and with much less trouble, as it requires only disconnecting the hooked ends 39 of the hold-down fingers 34.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding of the objects and advantages of my invention. The appended claims have been drawn to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

1. In a device for picking up round articles, such as golf balls, a substantially horizontal generally rectangular frame supported on a pair of wheels in elevated relation to the ground for forward travel, pick-up means on said frame in forwardly spaced relation to said wheels providing further support of said frame in elevated relation to the ground by sliding contact with the ground, basket means on said frame disposed behind said pick-up means, the pick-up means comprising a series of pick-up fingers spaced laterally transversely relative to said frame and disposed substantially horizontally and slidable on the ground, each finger having forwardly converging lateral edges and an upwardly projecting front end portion giving a sled runner effect in sliding on the ground, the spacing of the front ends of said fingers being greater than the diameter of the golf balls or other round articles to be picked up, the lateral edges of neighboring fingers converging rearwardly and serving to raise the balls or other articles to be picked up, a rotary brush extending transversely of said frame directly over said pick-up fingers to sweep the balls or other round articles from said pick-up fingers into said basket means, and drive means for said rotary brush.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which the drive means for said brush is connected with one of said wheels for driving the brush at a stepped up speed in relation to the speed of rotation of said wheel.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which the drive means for said brush is connected with one of said wheels for driving the brush at a stepped up speed in relation to the speed of rotation of said wheel, the drive means comprising a belt operating on a relatively large pulley on the wheel and on a relatively small pulley connected with the brush.

4. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pickup fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pickup fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame.

5. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pick-up fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pick-up fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame, the device including spring means normally urging said pick-up fingers downwardly into contact with the ground.

6. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pickup fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pick-up fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame, the device including spring means normally urging said pick-up fingers downwardly into contact with the ground, the spring means comprising spring arms carried on the frame and extending downwardly therefrom in front of said pick-up fingers and connected at their lower ends to the front end portions of said pick-up fingers.

7. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pick-up fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pick-up fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame, the device including spring means normally urging said pick-up fingers downwardly into contact with the ground, the spring means comprising spring arms carried on the frame and extending downwardly therefrom in front of said pick-up fingers and connected at their lower ends to the front end portions of said pick-up fingers, each of said arms having an upright portion disposed in the same longitudinal vertical plane with the pick-up finger connected therewith and spaced forwardly relative thereto serving to deflect the balls or other round articles in their path to the right or left into positions to pass between the front ends of neighboring pick-up fingers for pick-up purposes.

8. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means.

9. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means, and an inclined baffie extending forwardly and upwardly from the rear portion of said basket means over said ramp to deflect balls downwardly into the basket means when they are propelled with sufficient force by the rotary brush to strike the baflle.

10. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means, and an inclined baflle extending forwardly and upwardly from the rear portion of said basket means over said ramp to deflect balls downwardly into the basket means when they are propelled with sufficient force by the rotary brush to strike the baflie, the bafiie being of cushioning material to slow down the balls striking the same as they are deflected into the basket means.

11. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means, the pickup fingers having rearwardly and upwardly projecting inclined supporting portions guided on the ramp for endwise movement, whereby the pick-up fingers are movable up and down relative to said frame independently of one another so that the series of fingers conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other articles disposed at different elevations with respect to said frame.

12. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means, the pickup fingers having rearwardly and upwardly projecting inclined supporting portions guided on the ramp for endwise movement, whereby the pick-up fingers are movably up and down relative to said frame independently of one another so that the series of fingers conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other articles disposed at different elevations with respect to said frame, and spring means urging the fingers normally downwardly into contact with the ground.

13. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means, the pickup fingers having rearwardly and upwardly projecting inclined supporting portions guided on the ramp for endwise movement, whereby the pick-up fingers are movable up and down relative to said frame independently of one another so that the series of fingers conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other articles disposed at different elevations with respect to said frame, and spring means urging the fingers normally downwardly into contact with the ground, the spring means being individual to the fingers and each being in the form of a downwardly projecting spring arm carried on the frame in front of and aligned with the pick-up finger and connected at its lower end with the finger.

14. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a ramp extending transversely of said frame with upward and rearward inclination between the pick-up fingers and the basket means to direct balls upwardly from the lower level of the rotary brush into the basket means, the pickup fingers having rearwardly and upwardly projecting inclined supporting portions guided on the ramp for endwise movement, whereby the pick-up fingers are movable up and down relative to said frame independently of one another so that the series of fingers conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other articles disposed at different elevations with respect to said frame, and spring means urging the fingers normally downwardly into contact with the ground, the arm having a portion in forwardly spaced relation to the pick-up finger serving to deflect balls or other articles to be picked up to the right or left into alignment with the space between neighboring fingers for efficient pick-up purposes.

15. A device as set forth in claim 1, including removable wear shoes below and detachably mounted on the fingers and slidable on the ground so as to protect the fingers from wear in operation.

16. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pickup fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pick-up fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame, and removable wear shoes below and detachably mounted on the fingers and slidable on the ground so as to protect the fingers from wear in operation.

17. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pick-up fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pick-up fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame, the device including spring means normally urging said pick-up fingers downwardly into contact with the ground, the device further including removable wear shoes below and detachably mounted on the fingers and slidable on the ground so as to protect the fingers from wear in operation.

18. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein the pick-up fingers are movable up and down independently of one another and guided for reciprocatory movement with respect to said frame, whereby to enable the series of pickup fingers to conform to the contour of the ground to pick up balls or other round articles at different levels with respect to said frame, the device including spring means normally urging said pick-up fingers downwardly into contact with the ground, the spring means comprising spring arms carried on the frame and extending downwardly therefrom in front of said pick-up fingers and connected at their lower ends to the front end portions of said pick-up fingers, the device further including removable wear shoes below and detachably mounted on the fingers and slidable on the ground so as to protect the fingers from Wear in operation, the removable wear shoe on each pickup finger being attached thereto by the spring arm the lower end of which ties together the interfitting front end portions of the pick-up finger and wear shoe.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,378,275 5/1921 Rademacher 56-328 2,484,437 10/1949 Wells 214356 GERALD M. FORLENZA, Primary Examiner. ALBERT J. MAKAY, Examiner. 

1. IN A DEVICE FOR PICKING UP ROUND ARTICLES, SUCH AS GOLF BALLS, A SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL GENERALLY RECTANGULAR FRAME SUPPORTED ON A PAIR OF WHEELS IN ELEVATED RELATION TO THE GROUND FOR FORWARD TRAVEL, PICK-UP MEANS ON SAID FRAME IN FORWARDLY SPACED RELATION TO SAID WHEELS PROVIDING FURTHER SUPPORT OF SAID FRAME IN ELEVATED REALTION TO THE GROUND BY SLIDING CONTACT WITH THE GROUND, BASKET MEANS ON SAID FRAME DISPOSED BEHIND SAID PICK-UP MEANS, THE PICK-UP MEANS COMPRISING A SERIES OF PICK-UP FINGERS SPACED LATERALLY TRANSVERSELY RELATIVE TO SAID FRAME AND DISPOSED SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTALLY AND SLIDABLE ON THE GROUND, EACH FINGER HAVING FOWARDLY CONVERGING LATERAL EDGES AND AN UPWARDLY PROJECTING FRONT END PORTION GIVING A SLED RUNNER EFFECT IN SLIDING ON THE GROUND, THE SPACING OF THE FRONT ENDS OF SAID FINGERS BEING GREATER THAN THE DIAMETER OF THE GOLF BALLS OR OTHER ROUND ARTICLES TO BE PICKED UP, THE LATERAL EDGES OF NEIGHBORING FINGERS CON- 